Emily Dickinson
' Emily Elizabeth Dickinson' (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Considered an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence. Tossup Questions # The speaker of one of this author's poems mentions how the title entity has a song, a sting, and a wing, for "fame is a bee." Another of this author's poems mentions how "A Service...kept beating, beating" and "Mourners to and fro kept treading" as the speaker "heard them lift a box" for "a funeral, in my Brain." In another poem by this author, the speaker recalls pausing before a house, which, because its roof "was scarcely visible," seemed to be "a Swelling of the Ground." The speaker has become "inebriate of Air" and a "Debauchee of dew" in her poem "I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed." For 10 points, name this "Belle of Amherst" who wrote "Because I Could Not Stop for Death." # One of this author's poems describes the "juggler of day / Leaping like leopards to the Sky." This author of "Blazing in Gold and quenching in purple" also surmised that the title object was "Written by faded men" in "The Bible Is An Antique Volume." One of this author's poems describes the narrator "Reeling—through endless summer days / From inns of molten blue" and declares "Inebriate of air—am I." This poet of "I taste a liquor never brewed" mentions a "blue, uncertain stumbling buzz," and another of her poems describes horses' heads turned "toward Eternity." For 10 points, name this poet of "I heard a Fly buzz when I died" and "Because I could not stop for Death." # Billy Collins compared taking off this figure's clothes to "riding a swan into the night" in a poem that ends "reason is a plank." The letters of this writer, who regarded letter writing as "the joy of earth," were first compiled by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd. This author imagined a bee that babbles in a stolid air and "Sweet Birds" that pipe in "gorant cadence" in a poem about "meek members of the Resurrection" that are "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" Another poem by this author states "We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain, We passed the Setting Sun," and ends "I first surmised the Horses' Heads were toward eternity." That poem's opening clause is followed by "He kindly stopped for me." For 10 points, name this author of "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" and "Because I could not stop for Death," a reclusive poet from Amherst. # This author described how "they put me in the closet because they liked me still" in the poem "They shut me up in Prose." A "plank in reason" breaks and "mourners to and fro kept treading" in this author's poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain." Another of her poems describes the day that the speaker "first surmised that Horses' Heads were toward Eternity." This poet described a ride in a carriage which held "but just Ourselves – And Immortality." For 10 points, name this author of "Because I could not stop for death", nicknamed "the Belle of Amherst." # A poem by this author describes two characters who talk "as kinsmen met at night" until the moss reaches their lips. This author wrote of the notched pencil of a dead friend in one poem, and described an "onset" when the "King be witnessed - in the Room" in another. This poet wrote, "I signed away what portion of me be assignable" and described how "then the Windows failed" in another poem. One of this author's poems mentions "a House that seemed a swelling in the Ground" and a "School, where Children strove at recess." In that poem of hers, the speaker remembers the day "I first surmised the Horses' heads were toward Eternity." For 10 points, name this author of "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died" and "Because I could not stop for Death."